Electrical sockets can be used to secure electronics, including packaged electronics such as integrated circuits (IC), to other devices such as a system board (e.g. a mother board or a printed circuit board “PCB”) of an electronic system. These electrical sockets can provide for installation, and in some cases replacement, of the electronics. Electrical sockets can be provided in different sizes and configurations, including, but not limited to, lower insertion force (LIF) sockets and zero insertion force (ZIF) sockets. Certain sockets, such as land grid array (LGA) sockets, do not rely on pins, instead providing cantilevers that can abut pads of the package.
LIF sockets can be used to detachably secure traditional electronics with lower pin counts to other devices. A LIF configuration can rely on other forces, such as a separate machine or an operator's fingers, to correctly position the electronics into the socket such that contacts of the electronics correctly mate with contacts of the socket. If a machine is correctly aligned with the socket, it can perform assembly with favorable reliability. Operators, on the other hand, can make alignment errors and can fail to detect them, and can damage the components during assembly. Although not necessary, an additional step of inspection of an assembled electronics/socket combination can be used to ensure proper placement, adding cost.
A ZIF socket can include machinery, a part of or integrated with the socket, to assist in placing the electronics in the socket in alignment. ZIF sockets can accommodate larger pin counts than a LIF socket that is not machine assisted, in part because the on-board machinery of the ZIF can perform precision placement that an operator may not be capable of. Thus ZIF sockets can provide for high pin counts and reliable assembly.
An LGA socket may typically include a release handle or lever which can operate a cam screw to open the socket and permit easy installation of electronics into the socket. Subsequent closure of the handle may secure the processor chip in place.
Even with these features, existing sockets suffer from several shortcomings, such as those related to reliable assembly. Sockets are assembled to other components, such as printed circuit boards. Electronics to be disposed in the sockets can include a large number of contacts that may be easily damaged or misaligned; their pads, pins or balls are generally fragile. Accordingly, proper alignment of the electronics to the socket is important so that the proper contact can be made. For at least this reason, any planar warpage of a socket, such as that imparted to the socket from another component to which it is connected, can result in improper assembly of the electronics to the socket, such as by damaging pins or causing misalignment. Similarly, warpage of either or both of the socket and the electronics to be disposed in the socket can result in misalignment. This can result undesirable performance impediments.
Sockets can experience a variety of environmental conditions such as reflow and annealing and can become twisted or turned, and can be inelastically warped out of shape, which exacerbates assembly concerns. Accordingly, there is a need to provide an apparatus and method to ensure that electrical sockets have a flat surface mount region and, in instances in which warpage has arisen, there is a need to provide an apparatus and method to maintain a desirable interior shape into which electronics can be disposed.